It had officially become a month since Anna came to base, a few celebrated with her while some were well...still being disdainful as always. Anna had to pretend to not be affected by it everyday. She knew what she wanted and unlike them she didn't have time to think about bullying others or reaction to their disdain.
Anna had been doing her exercises diligently and also kept surprising Jason with how fast their progress was.
She stopped pushing herself to her limits though, what could she say?...she was lazy.
Jason told her that he was satisfied with her as a patient and promised to take her out for dinner during the weekend.
She had been looking forward to it so much but, when weekend came, everyone heard about her Jason's little trip, next thing she knew she was in a large bus with everyone in base heading for the restaurant Li Chen has taken her. They all said that they wanted to celebrate with her and since Dylan didn't have any oppositions…she was having a meal with them.
As in everyone in base!
When Dylan heard about Jason's idea, he felt uncomfortable about it so he announced to the base that they were going to use it as a celebration for Anna spending a month with them, which has never been done before!
Anna tried to convince Dylan otherwise but...here she was, with her niece on her lap, her brother sitting across her and her being squashed in between Dylan and Jason.
There was enough room why were they trying to suffocate her?
"Dylan, Jason, Do the both of you want to sit together instead?" Anna asked trying to make Ella comfortable, although it was hard with this two muscular men trying to squeeze the life out of her.
Dylan sighed, what was he doing?....he was becoming so attached to her, Dr Conway told him that it might be because he misses his little sister and that was why he always wanted to stay close to Anna but...
"Sorry Anna" Jason apologized still glaring at Dylan, he just wanted to have a quiet meal with his patient but now everyone was here because of a certain person's pointless jealousy.
"Anna, why aren't you eating?, do you feel uncomfortable?" Li Chen asked with concern written all over his face, Anna noticed a certain person glaring at her from the side of her eyes. Anna almost yelled 'Its not my fault!' But she sat quietly and smiled reassuring Li Chen.
Despite the fact that there was a huge crowd, she was still happy nevertheless, that they actually cared enough to come to this.
Efya only came back to her senses when her chopsticks snapped in half gaining everyone's attention.
She smiled awkwardly and buried her face in her bowl, she secretly glared at Anna who was getting all of the attention.
Dylan never celebrated things like this, it seems the girl has more influence on everyone than she thought. She was the only person in the room who didn't have a smile on her face.
"Anna, eat more okay?...you're so skinny" Shola kept adding food into Anna's plate.
Anna could only smile, it wasn't her fault that she was skinny, her body just refused to add weight no matter how she tried. Of course she had the urge to say it out loud but she kept quiet and smiled.
"Hey, you guys remember when Dylan came back from China for the first time?" Su Chen suddenly asked, there were some people who had been at base longer than Dylan but of course he surpassed all of them.
"Pft!" The red haired guy next to Mason laughed, his blue eyes shone like he was remembering something funny.
"He was clueless then, General Duan's favorite hobby at that time was to beat him up"
Su Chen nodded, those days when Dylan was still young and weak....ah how he missed them.
"Come to think of it, Dylan was the youngest at that time, just like you Anna" The red haired guy smiled at her, Anna nodded. She didn't actually know that, Dylan never mentioned it.
"There was this time Dylan fell into mud because Su Chen pushed him but, Su Chen denied it" Li Chen added glaring at his brother.
Su Chen shrugged at Anna's surprised look "Yeah.....I was a bully before so what?!" He said before facing his food, why was she looking at him like some monster?
"But that was before Dylan left for the army" The red haired guy shuddered "He became a demon when he came back, he actually managed to land a punch on General Duan"
Dylan coughed lightly, he said it like it was a good thing, he clearly remembered how broken his bones were after his fists landed on the general.
Anna smiled feeling proud, of course Dylan is that strong.
She tried to stare at him secretly but their eyes met, she wanted to look away but she couldn't. She didn't know how long she stared but Dylan's eyes soon left hers and looked behind her.
'So he wasn't looking at me...' Anna thought disappointed.
She sighed, suddenly she felt tired of this meal. She disliked crowds and even though she appreciated the fact that they were all here because of her she still felt suffocated.
"I'm going to leave first" Anna said, everyone stared at her making her feel uncomfortable, she wanted to give Ella to her mother but to her surprise the girl was sleeping.
"I'll leave with you" Chesa said following behind the girl.
Anna felt sad all of a sudden, maybe it was because she realized she had feelings for Dylan, or maybe it was because she knew that he would never feel the same way.
'I was just foolishly holding on to a single strand of hope....I'm so stupid!'
Anna sighed, staring at the blue sky absent mindedly
"What do I do Ella?, I'm going to end up getting hurt" Anna said in a low voice to the sleeping girl. She didn't want to get hurt, she was tired of getting hurt.
"So you really like him huh?" Chesa asked startling her.
Anna looked up to her friend and smiled "You know...I always thought I would never like a person, that I would never have feelings for someone....." Anna said with a bitter smile.
"But do you know what I realized?..."
She asked staring up at Chesa while her eyes suddenly turned serious.